.
.
.
.
.
' Aoyama Yuuga '
...
"May I ask a question?!"
...
Every eye in the room was drawn to a tall young man standing straight up, his hand ramrod-straight in the air. "GO FOR IT LITTLE LISTENER!" the announcer grinned, shooting finger guns in the student's direction.
"On the handout, there are four types of Villains shown!" the boy announced, emphatically waving the paper to demonstrate his point. "If that is a misprint, then UA, the most prestigious school in Japan, should be ashamed of its mistake!"
Yuuga almost choked, his violet eyes bulging. Mon dieu… Was this kid for real?! He wasn't the only one thinking along those lines either. A quick glance around showed that quite a number of people in the room were gaping at him. But the other boy continued, apparently oblivious to the stares. "We examinees are here because we wish to become the most exemplary of heroes, thus we expect the academy of our choice to take matters just as seriously!"
"Well, Examinee 7-1-1-1, thanks for calling in with your request!" the announcer grinned in turn, indicating a new silhouette that had appeared on the screen. "The final type of villain is worth zero points! It's just an obstacle we'll be throwin' in your way! There's one in every battle center, but I recommend my listeners try to avoid it and focus on the ones at the top of the charts!"
"I see. Thank you very much for your clarification, sir! Excuse my interruption!" the serious student bowed deeply, then sat back down.
"ALRIGHTY THEN that's all for me today, so if you're ready to get going, I'll close with a little present: our school motto! As General Napoleon Bonapart once laid down-" Yuuga perked up at the mention of his fellow frenchman "-'a true hero is one who overcomes life's misfortunes'-now that's a tasty soundbite for ya'! Now, are you ready to go beyond?! LET'S HEAR A PLUS ULTRA!"
The silence was positively deafening.
"GOOD LUCK!"
.oOo.
Si vulgaire! Yuuga thought in a huff as he stumbled through the massive double doors leading into the walled city-scape, Present Mic's voice echoing behind him as he ran.
"GO GO GO PEOPLE! DO YOU EXPECT A COUNTDOWN FOR EVERYTHING?! BECAUSE LEMME TELL YA', THAT'S NOT HOW THE REAL WORLD WORKS! YOU'RE WASTIN' AIR TIME HERE!"
Alright Yuuga, reste calme, he thought to himself, darting down an alley in order to split away from the crowd of students. He needed a chance to distinguish himself, after all.
A chance to let his natural sparkle shine through to the prestigious faculty of UA high school.
When the first robot, painted with a number two on one side, zipped around the corner, he forced himself to beam at it, rather than cringe as was his first instinct. With an elegant twirl, he released his quirk, letting the naval laser fly so that it smashed straight through the metal hull of the 'villain'.
And so he continued on. At one point, he had to save another student from a one point villain. The kid wore a tank top, shorts and an expression like he'd just looked the devil himself in the eye.
Yuuga couldn't help but smirk at him as he cooed, a little mockingly, "Merci beacoup! We make a great team with you as my decoy! Although I doubt I'll be seeing much of you in the future! Adieu!" With that robot, he had twenty-eight points. When there was little more than two minutes remaining, he was up to thirty-five.
And then all hell broke loose.
The CRASH! and BOOM! of miniature explosions, shattering glass, and cracking concrete split the air of the combat arena. As the various applicants turned with mixed curiosity and fear towards the source of the chaos, a mounting sense of panic quickly overcame the group-and Yuuga was ashamed to admit that he was no exception.
When the ten-story tall robot appeared, he stumbled backwards and fell flat upon his derrière. As some kind of animal instinct seized control, he found himself huddled against the wall, half-concealed by some of the debris that had come crashing to the pavement with the monster's appearance, utterly frozen by horror.
"Ow!" a voice cried, and something hard and cold dropped into the pit of Yuuga's stomach as he saw a fallen girl, trapped in the middle of the road under some of the rubble, directly in the robot's path.
He… he should do something. Should run forward and help; should save her! But he couldn't move. He couldn't even scream. All he could do was sit and tremble and watch her-
"DIE!" a voice roared from outside his line of sight, accompanied by a heart-stopping BANG! and a blast of light and heat that he could feel from some one hundred meters away. A moment later, the scruffy looking blond boy from before quite literally exploded into view, landing hard a few meters away from the fallen girl and tumbling into a roll with the force of the impact. He managed to scramble to his feet alongside her, shoving his shoulder against the collapsed debris and using the entirety of his body strength to lift it up.
Distantly, Yuuga noticed the smoke rising from his palms and wrists and wondered if he wasn't using his hands because they were too badly injured from that last explosion.
Does he have incompatibility with his quirk, too?
"Move it, Round Cheeks!" the boy barked, his teeth gritted with the effort of keeping the slab of stone off of her. She quickly snapped her mouth closed, pulling her leg free and rolling out of the way so that he could let it drop.
It crashed back to the ground a moment later as the boy pulled his fellow examinee roughly to her feet, him grimacing when their hands came into contact-so I was right about him being in pain. He started to pull her away from the zero pointer, but when she staggered with another cry of pain and almost fell, he stopped.
Yuuga could see them talking, glancing back towards the robot as their mouths moved rapidly, but he couldn't hear either of them at this distance. He saw the girl pointing towards the crater he'd left behind in the middle of the road, then the boy shook his head, gesturing with his smoking hands.
The robot was less than five meters away.
Suddenly the girl wrapped her arms around him, pressing one hand to his back and the other to her own forearm, a faint pink glow visible even from this distance. "Then do it now!" the girl shouted, her eyes clenched shut. The boy grit his teeth, thrust his hands out and created another explosion with a bellow of pain.
It wasn't anywhere near as powerful as the one from before, but somehow the force still sent them flying through the air at dangerous speeds, rapidly gaining distance between themselves and the monster.
But it wasn't fast enough. The beast had already retracted a fist for a punch; now, all it had to do was adjust its aim and throw it. Yuuga heard a sharp scream escape his own throat before he clapped a hand over his mouth, watching as though in slow motion as the massive limb rushed inexorably closer.
One meter away. A half a meter. A few inches.
And its arm exploded.
Yuuga flinched, gaping in shock as the metal of the robot's arm suddenly buckled all the way up to its shoulder, sharp bursts of electricity and flame consuming the limb in a rush.
The impact threw up a cloud of dust to match the one when the giant first appeared, scattering already-fallen debris in all directions. The robot staggered backwards as well, thrown entirely off-balance by the sheer force of the blow-directly towards him.
The young frenchman squawked in terrified alarm, helplessly throwing his hands over his face in what he knew would be a fruitless attempt to defend himself. The robot's foot came down towards his head-
And bounced back inches away from it.
There was no other way for him to describe it. The robot simply hit some invisible barrier and toppled backwards, crashing to the ground. Bemused, Yuuga glanced around, trying to discover the source of his rescue. It couldn't have been the explosions boy or the girl-they were currently falling to earth some hundred meters or more away. But then… who?
He was only startled out of his search when he heard the matching grunts of pain as the boy and girl sent flying from the earlier explosion hit the pavement once again, skidding several feet and likely getting some major road burn.
The pair lay still, panting for several moments, then the girl abruptly rolled to the side and vomited in a most inelegant fashion. Yuuga shuddered and turned away just as an alarm blared over the PA system, followed by the voice of Present Mic. "AND THAT'S A WRAP! TO ALL MY LISTENERS, THANK YOU AND HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!"
Slowly, Yuuga staggered to his feet, concentrating on breathing and fighting to get his trembling body back under control. He had to sparkle. He had to shine.
He couldn't let anyone else see how terrified he'd truly been. Off to one side, the other examinees were starting to gather around where that explosion boy was shaking the shoulder of the girl he'd saved, his face twisted with a bizarre mixture of concern and indignant exasperation. "Oi, don't you dare give out on me now, Round Cheeks!" he yelled. "Come on, get up already!"
"Are… Are you guys okay?"
"Dude, how'd you do that?"
"You can create explosions that powerful?!"
"Freakin'-! Shut up, would you; I can't hear myself think! Oi, Round Cheeks!"
"Calm down, sonny! She'll be just fine!"
.
.
.
.
.
.